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January 5, 2017

December small business hiring bounces back to end 2016

The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index (SBEI), a barometer for small business hiring trends that surveys labor data from over 4,000 companies employing 300 or fewer people, reported a strong reading for hiring, registering a 1.60 percent month-over-month increase.

In December, 30 percent of companies in the SBEI increased hiring, 50 percent made no change to staff totals, and 20 percent cut payroll totals. Industries that showed gains in employment include Real Estate, Manufacturing, Health Care, Retail and Non Profits, both of which are seasonal. Regionally, all four sectors across the country saw employment improve.

Heading into 2017, small business owners should maintain cautious optimism as macroeconomic data needs to solidify and policy changes need to come to light quickly as the new administration takes office.

The graphic below highlights trends and results from the SBEI.

The SBEI illustration is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.